Disney+ subscription fee will be increased by a dollar from $6.99 to $7.99 per month from March 26, 2021, announced Walt Disney on Thursday via a virtual Investor Day meet. With Disney Plus planning to release more than 100 titles per year, the company said that the Disney Bundle (with Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+) would be priced at $13.99 per month, up from its current price of $12.99 per month.
In Europe, the pricing will go up by €2 to €8.99 per month.
The company also said that, as of December 2, its direct-to-consumer services had exceeded 137 million global paid subscriptions, including 11.5 million ESPN+ subscribers, 38.8 million Hulu (US subscription video-on-demand service by Disney) subscribers, and 86.8 million Disney+ subscribers. The services were launched in November 2019.
Pointing out that the numbers had exceeded expectations, the company announced that its next target was for its streaming services to achieve 300-350 million total subscriptions by the fiscal year 2024.
Across @DisneyPlus, Hotstar, Hulu, and ESPN+, Disney Direct-to-Consumer services have over 137 million subscriptions. In 2021, @DisneyPlus will launch in more markets including Eastern Europe, South Korea, Hong Kong, and more!
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
The virtual meet was headed by Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek and Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board Bob Iger.
“The tremendous success we’ve achieved across our unique portfolio of streaming services, with more than 137 million subscriptions worldwide, has bolstered our confidence in our acceleration toward a DTC-first business model,” said Chapek, in a press release.
Disney also introduced its international general entertainment content brand, Star, which will launch in Europe on February 23, 2021. Star will be an integrated part of Disney+ and will come with its own branded tile and a new collection of titles. In Latin America, Star+ will be launched as a standalone streaming service to cover the region’s live sporting events.
Launching soon are Star and Star+, general entertainment content brands outside of the U.S. that will build on the success of #DisneyPlus internationally and Disney+ Hotstar in India and Indonesia . 🌟
— Disney (@Disney) December 10, 2020
Disney+ has plans to release approximately ten Star Wars series and ten Marvel series, along with 15 Disney live-action, Disney Animation, and Pixar series.
In a similar move in October, streaming giant Netflix had increased its plan prices for its US subscribers. Netflix had increased the standard and premium plans by $1 and $2 per month, charging US subscribers $14 and $18 for standard and premium plans respectively. However, no price changes were made by Netflix in the basic plan, which remained at $9 a month.
